


By Your Grace

by ZellaStone



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Castiel and Dean Winchester Have a Profound Bond, Castiel and Dean Winchester Need to Use Their Words, Castiel in the Bunker, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Movie Night, POV Alternating, POV Castiel (Supernatural), POV Dean Winchester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-03 16:48:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17881526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZellaStone/pseuds/ZellaStone
Summary: Dean stares at him in disbelief. “Cas, man, you gotta know by now. Ineverwant you to leave.”In which Dean allows Cas to heal him in exchange for a movie night, and misunderstandings happen.





	By Your Grace

“Hey man, Jody called and said she needs some help on a case. I’m going to head out to meet up with her.”

Dean glances up at the intrusion. He’s been holed up in the bunker for that past few days due to a majorly swollen and probably sprained ankle. Of all the injuries he had sustained over the years with this job, this was probably the dumbest. It happened after the hunt was finished, tripped over some stupid tree root or something in the woods while he and Sam were walking back to the car. 

The stupidity of the injury and it’s resulting forced confinement had left Dean on edge. Not being able to contribute was the worst feeling, as if he wasn’t already enough of a burden on his family. 

“And before you protest - we’ll be fine alone. You’re going to be a liability with that ankle.”

Dean scowled at his brother’s choice of words. Although he was getting anxious with the lack of activity, he knew Sam was right and wasn’t about to invite himself on this job. But ‘liability’ was probably an exaggeration. Dean had championed through injuries much worse than this and come out just fine on the other side. 

Sam raises an eyebrow, like he knows exactly what Dean is thinking. Hell, maybe he does. “Cas should be back soon anyway and he can patch you up.”

He hasn’t even mentioned his new injury to the angel yet. It wasn’t all that long ago when Cas had been _convinced_ they only wanted him around for his abilities, so with that still fresh in his mind, he had decided not to bring it up. Dean was well aware that he was far from perfect where his relationship with Cas was concerned, but still, he was trying not to make the same mistakes. The last thing he wants is for Cas to think that he only wants to see him for an ankle repair. 

Dean glances at his phone with a frown before responding to Sam. He would be lying if he said that it was the first time he had checked it that day, even that hour, hoping to see a message from his friend. “Yeah well I haven’t heard from him at all today.” He was at least a little concerned by the lack of word from his best friend and their kind of surrogate kid. They usually made a point of at least texting each other every day. 

“I talked to Jack last night. They were wrapping up and leaving this morning so he’s probably just driving.” Sam pauses as his eyes move around the room with a look of distaste “Dude have you even moved today?”

Dean follows his gaze across his bedroom. He was laying in a nest of blankets propped up by pillows, wearing the same clothes he had slept in the night before. Lore books were scattered haphazardly around the room from his attempts at doing something useful with himself. The TV was paused in the middle of a serious Netflix binge that had truthfully only been stopped due to Sam’s knock on his door. A bag of chips and several empty beer bottles littered his bedside table. It wasn’t really _dirty_ but it was definitely a mess. 

“Shut up bitch.”

Sam rolls his eyes with an affection smile. “Whatever jerk. I’ll text you when I get there.”

After Sam leaves, Dean grabs the crutches from where they lean against the wall and hobbles his way to the shower. If Cas did get here soon, he should at least make sure he is presentable. 

...

Cas opens the bunker door, carefully balancing a large pizza and a six pack of Dean’s favorite beer as he does so. The door clangs heavily as it swings open. He idly wonders if the men of letters designed it to be so noisy on purpose, as an added alarm. If so, it is effective because by the time he has descended the stairs Dean is moving into the war room on crutches. 

“Hey buddy. It’s about damn time!”

“Apologies, we took a small detour so I could drop Jack off with your mother. She’s going to bring him home in a few days. Also I brought you pizza and beer.” As he finishes his statement, he sets his spoils on the map table and studies Dean for a moment. The man is in much better spirits than he expected. Sam had texted him a warning about Dean’s injury and subsequent poor mood, so Cas had been expecting an irritated and short tempered greeting. In preparation, he had stopped for food on the way into town. It was an attempt to cheer him up prior to offering his healing services; a hungry Dean was much less reasonable than a well fed Dean. 

But instead Dean was already grinning at him and moving to sit in front of the pizza. 

“You’re awesome man. I was starved. You want some?” Dean is shoving a slice into his mouth as he asks and Cas fights back a smile unsuccessfully. Somehow Dean manages to make his terrible manners charming. He shakes his head but sits and opens a bottle of beer for each of them. 

He slides one of the bottles over to Dean and motions towards the crutches where they were leaned against the table. “You didn’t mention that when we spoke yesterday. I can heal it now if you’d like.” He’s not surprised when Dean shakes his head. 

“Didn’t bring it up because it’s fine. Don’t need to waste your mojo on me. It’ll heal by itself in a couple days.”

Cas frowns. Dean frequently frustrated him with this. As if he wouldn’t happily ‘waste’ all of his ‘mojo’ to help this man if he needed it. As it were, whatever injury his ankle had sustained was sure to be an easy fix. 

“It’s no problem Dean. I’m much stronger than I once was. And besides... I was planning to stick around at least until Jack and Mary arrive. If that’s okay.”

Dean grins at him but shrugs off the offer again. “Yeah that’s awesome man! Sam took off earlier to meet Jody for a case, so it’s just me and you.”

Cas watches Dean as he eats and talks, filling him in on everything that had happened leading up to and since his injury. The man was a puzzle to him. There was so much about humanity that still eluded him, but Dean was especially difficult to figure out. But it was a puzzle that he was determined to one day solve. 

...

Dean clears his throat as he closes the pizza box. Cas’s plan to hang out for a couple days was unexpected, but more than welcome. The two of them hadn’t gotten to spend any significant amount of time together for far too long. “So, what do you wanna do? Watch a movie?”

He watches as Cas considers his offer. When he doesn’t answer right away Dean moves to back peddle, instantly worrying. “Or not - I mean we can -“

“No I’d like that” Cas finally answers “but I have a condition.”

“Uh ok.” Deans heart stutters slightly. And okay, he should be used to the way Cas affects him by now. Maybe he would never get used to it. 

“Let me fix your ankle first.”

Dean rolls his eyes. Stupid angel, always worrying about him unnecessarily. But if that’s what it takes...he supposes he can allow it. 

“Alright fine. Come on.” He grumbles as he struggles to his feet. Cas instantly stands and reaches to offer a hand. Dean lightly shrugs him off and leads the way down the hall, Cas trailing uncertainly behind. 

He wonders too late if it was weird to take Cas to his room rather than the den. At least he had cleaned it earlier, just in case. He walks in and situates himself against the headboard propping his leg up and waving towards it slightly. “Go nuts I guess.”

Cas moves from where he had stopped to awkwardly hover in the doorway to sit on the edge of the bed. Slowly and gently, he wraps long fingers around the injured ankle and Dean can’t help the sigh that escapes when he feels Cas’s grace move through him. 

He has been healed by a handful of different angels, but none ever felt like this. He tries not to think too much about what that might mean as Cas’s grace moves through the injury and spreads throughout the rest his body slowly and delicately. Somehow, it was soothingly warm and refreshingly cool at the same time, filling him with a sense of calm and safety. 

Goosebumps blossom where Cas’s fingers brush as he pulls his hand away. It hadn’t escaped Dean’s notice that Cas touched him more deliberately than anyone else. Everyone else got two fingers to the forehead for simple healing, but Dean always got a more intimate, full handed direct contact approach. Dean wasn’t sure why, but he wasn’t ever planning to ask. 

The corners of Cas’s mouth twitch upwards slightly as he meets Dean’s eyes. 

“Thank you.”

“Dude I’m supposed to thank you.” Dean huffs as he pulls his leg away from Cas and flexes his ankle, inspecting his work. It was flawless as usual. Dean wasn’t sure if he would truly ever understand why Cas was so good to him, especially on the level of being thankful for the chance to heal him. It didn’t make sense. He didn’t have anything to offer someone like him. Castiel, literal angel, could go anywhere and be with anyone he wanted, and yet here he was sitting at the foot of Dean’s bed shyly smiling at him. 

His thoughts becoming too much, Dean quickly grabs the remote and starts up something random from the Netflix que and gets comfortable. He watches Cas from the corner of his eye. The angel is sitting with rigid posture, eyes turned to the TV with a level of focus unnecessary for the activity. 

Dean hesitates only for a moment before shifting around his pillows to pad both sides of the headboard. Cas’s eyes flicker towards the activity, watching quietly. Dean ignores him for the moment as he finishes his task. His eyes look up to meet the angel’s and he pats the spot beside him. 

“Might as well get comfortable man.”

...

Cas hesitates for just a moment before he moves to the offered space. He slowly allows himself to relax, his shoulder lightly pressing against Dean’s. This was one of those moments that caused him confusion. Usually Dean would keep him at arms length, always afraid of something. Exactly what, Cas didn’t know, but he was certain that calling attention to it would cause the other man distress, so he did not. 

Dean caught his eye and smiled. “Better?”

“Yes, thank you” 

The movie played on, but Cas was only half paying attention to it, his attention instead focused on the man beside him. Dean had shut off the lights, so the only source was the flickering images on the television screen. The lights cast his face into shadows, his eyes sparkling with the reflection. He was beautiful. 

Dean barked out a laugh at something on the screen, startling him out of his thoughts. He turned towards Cas, still laughing. Cas couldn’t help but beam back at him, and it seemed that Dean didn’t realize that he had no idea what was happening on the movie. He honestly didn’t even know what it was that they were watching. It didn’t matter. What mattered is that he was here, sharing this moment with his favorite person of all time. 

Castiel was very old, but when he looked back on his existence, nothing until he met Dean was even worth his consideration. Sometimes, it seemed to him that maybe Dean felt just as strongly in return. But Dean was bad at expressing himself, and Cas was bad at picking up on subtleties, so he was never sure enough to act on it. 

But today, maybe today was the right time. Dean was in good spirits, and had invited him to sit closely anyway, so maybe it would be okay. Subtly, so much so that if Dean reacted poorly he could probably deny his intentions, Cas leans into him. Dean glances over at him slightly, but only for a moment before returning his attention to the screen. Slightly emboldened, Cas steels himself before shifting his weight further and letting his head rest fully on his shoulder. Dean immediately tenses under him, and Cas panics.

...

Dean’s heart is in his throat; suddenly the movie is longer interesting and the only sound he can focus on is the blood rushing in his ears. Castiel, angel of the Lord, is cuddling with him. He lets out a shaky exhale and tries to force himself to relax. 

Cas must sense his tension, because he pulls away. For a moment Dean can only stare at him with wide eyes. 

“I’m sorry, I - I thought” Cas pauses and the frightened look on his face makes Dean’s heart drop. “I- never mind. I’m sorry - I’ll just-.” Cas motions towards the door and begins to move away. 

“Whoa whoa hold on man!” Dean reaches, leaning partway across the bed in order to grab onto Cas’s wrist before he makes it too far. He tries to catch the other man’s eyes, but Cas is determinedly staring at the floor, a look of misery on his face. “Look I don’t know what the hell just happened but you don’t get to just run away here!”

Cas finally looks at him, and there are actually tears shining in his eyes. “I thought you would want me to leave.”

Dean stares at him in disbelief. “Cas, man, you gotta know by now. I _never_ want you to leave.”

They stare at each other for a long moment before Dean sighs and rubs his free hand over his face. He takes one more look at Cas, sees the uncertain hopefulness written all over his face and makes a decision. 

“Just surprised me is all. Come back.” As he speaks he tugs gently on Cas’s wrist. 

“Please.”

...

Cas caves almost immediately, allowing Dean to pull him close. He’s a little in disbelief at the turn of events. When he had felt Dean tense up at the contact, he assumed the worst - that Dean was repulsed by his affections - that he had just ruined their friendship. 

The two men slowly relax into each other. Dean now has an arm wrapped around him, so Cas returns his head to his shoulder and hesitantly places an arm across his stomach. Dean hums softly above him and squeezes slightly before returning his attention to the television, and Cas smiles to himself. 

They lay like that until the end of the movie. 

...

When the movie ends they are still lying up against Dean’s headboard, tangled up in each other’s arms. 

Dean yawns, shifting himself further down and stretching out, pulling Cas along with him as he goes. He hesitates for a moment before he asks, nerves threatening his courage. 

“Will you stay?” 

Cas’s smile is beautiful and Dean’s heart flutters in his chest. 

“Of course Dean.”

Dean’s grins and shuts off the TV, bathing the room in darkness. 

 

The End.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
